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Salary for mayor, council might be worth some thought

By Jan Schultz,

The Imperial Republican News Editor

For the past four years, your mayor and council have been attending meetings and working on issues outside of meetings without pay. A suggestion has come forth that maybe providing a salary for those positions should be considered. Some figures have been discussed the last two council meetings, and the council will consider an ordinance at their next meeting, setting salaries at $5,200 for the mayor and $2,600 for each of the four council members. If the mayor attended all of the meetings (twice a month), that amounts to about $200 per meeting. For the council, it’s $100 per meeting. The council holds just one meeting in December but often has additional meetings at budget time. It’s worth looking at, but there could be some debate on the amounts. Previously, the mayor received $3,000 per year and each council member, $1,500. They later decided to base their salaries on meeting attendance, setting a per-meeting payment based on those annual salaries. Then, in 2010, salaries were eliminated in their entirety. Meeting attendance definitely should factor into what the mayor and council receive, if they, in fact, decide to set salaries again. It’s something to think about, because it appears Imperial is one of the few communities its size (and smaller) that does not pay its mayor and council. It’s worth some thought because they do put in a lot of hours both at meetings and in between.